I almost conceal it, so I do not say it is coming. [Mahamud said: 'Its meaning is that I am close to not saying it is coming... etc.' Ahmad said: 'One should not be satisfied with a gentle rejection of this interpretation, for it is clearly flawed. The concealment of it from Allah, the Exalted, is impossible by reason. So how can the impossible be described as close to occurrence?']

And the best explanation of the verse is what the scholar Abu Ali mentioned, where he said: 'What is meant is that I am about to remove its concealment, meaning: I will reveal it. For concealment is a cover, and it is also what a woman places over her clothes to cover herself. Then the Arabs say: 'I concealed it,' if I removed its concealment, just as they say: 'I complained about it' and 'I reproached it,' if I removed its complaint and reproach. At that point, the two readings come together: the opening of the hamzah and the closing of it. And Allah, the Exalted, knows best.']

Due to my intense desire to conceal it, and were it not for the kindness in informing about its coming while obscuring its time, I would not have informed about it. It is said: 'Its meaning is that I almost conceal it from myself,' and there is no evidence in the speech for this omitted part, and an omission without evidence is discarded. What misled them is that in the Mushaf of Abu, it says: 'I almost conceal it from myself.' And in some Mushafs: 'I almost conceal it from myself, so how can I reveal you to it?' And from Abu Darda and Said bin Jubair: 'I conceal it' with the opening, from 'khafā' if I reveal it, meaning: the revealing of it is near, as His saying, 'The Hour has drawn near.' And it has come in some dialects: 'I concealed it' meaning 'I revealed it.' And with this, the verse of Imru' al-Qais is explained:

'If you bury the disease, we will not conceal it... And if you stir up war, we will not sit idle.' [It is said: 'khafā' if he concealed it. And 'khafā' also means he revealed it, and this is what is meant here. The meaning is: If you conceal the grudges between us, we will also conceal them and not reveal them. The grudges and enmity are likened to a disease due to the commonality of harm arising from each in a declarative manner.

And war is likened to an animal in a metaphorical manner, and 'sending forth' is imaginative. Or 'sending forth' is used in causing as a metaphor or a declarative metaphor. The meaning is: And if you reveal enmity and ignite the conflict, we will overcome you as you know of us.]

So 'I almost conceal it' is open to both meanings. 'To be recompensed' is related to the verse 'For what they strive for.'